New coffee table project

Ok so my wife has been looking for some new living room furniture for awhile now, well she finally found the one that she wanted and with the size of the furniture and the size of the room it is in our old coffee table and end tables just are not going to work anymore. Besides they are around 8 or 9 years old and we really needed something a little smaller with this new furniture.

So I was commissioned by the wifey to build a new coffee table and end tables. After doing a lot of searching and talking to the wife, I set off in the right direction.

I have always loved the butcher block look of dining tables and cutting boards so I decided that was the route that I was going to take with the coffee table and end tables. After getting the final go ahead from the Boss I went about buying the woods needed to make the table top.

After buying all the wood I squared everything up and started ripping all the boards into 1” strips. After everything was ripped I had the grand baby put everything back together. There was very little intervention by me except where she put too many light colored boards close together.

(Will update with photo later)

After she was through designing the top I glued everything together and then planned the boards down to flush everything up and smooth out the boards.

Now that the top was well on its way to being finished I needed to start thinking about the base. After talking to the Boss again it was determined that the table was going to have square legs and I decided to used some really nice Birch for the apron.

It was at this point that I though that I would enclose the base and make the top so that it opened so that it could be used as storage for the couch blankets and remotes.

I used lift stay torsion hinge’s to attach the top to the base, which also prevent any fingers from getting smashed when the top is closed.

I still need to finish the edge of the table top and put the finish on.

I am wanting to put a clear finish on the table so that the beautiful natural color and grain show.

Please let me know what you think, as I am always looking for better ways to do things